Day: July 27, 2011

Democrats were confident they would have the votes needed to sustain Governor Perdue’s veto of the controversial voter ID bill.

They did indeed have the votes (67-52) to turn back Republican efforts to pass House Bill 351, requiring all North Carolina voters show a photo-id before being allowed to vote at the polls.

But knowing that defeat was at hand, House Majority Leader Rep. Paul Stam voted with the Democrats on Tuesday. This enabled Stam to use a procedural maneuver to have the override vote reconsidered on another day.

The House Minority Leader implored Stam not to stoop to such a tactic. Rep Joe Hackney said it was time to put the partisan Voter ID legislation to rest, so lawmakers could move on to other issues and not be forced to make the same arguments “over and over” in the next session.

Rep Stam’s answer:

“It’s not settled till it’s settled right.”

And so, even though the GOP’s veto override failed, House Bill 351 remains alive for the remainder of the 2011-12 session.

The differences in coverage of yesterday’s “rally” at the General Assembly by Americans for the Prosperous are interesting.

Laura Leslie with WRAL estimated the crowd at “several dozen” in her story about House Speaker Thom Tillis and House Majority Leader Paul Stam addressing the right-wing faithful assembled by the Pope-funded group.

That is about how many people Rob Schofield with NC Policy Watch reported were there after he attended the rally and counted the people listening to Tillis and Stam.

Just after the rally the folks at Americans for the Prosperous tweeted that “Over 100 people attend bright new days for jobs rally.”

This morning’s News & Observer ran a large picture of the rally on the front page of the Triangle section with a caption that said “about 100 people” were there.

A hundred people were not there but the readers of the N&O will never know that.

Maybe it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it’s another example of how the right-wing propaganda machine keeps winning, even on the small points.